An Open Letter to HSUS Staff Members

I know some of you well and many more as a result of brief but friendly meetings at conferences and other events.

I know those of you I have met to be sincere in your wish for animal liberation and in your own personal veganism.

I know that so many of you want nothing more than for people to quit eating animals and especially for people to quit breeding, confining, and then killing animals to be eaten.

I know that so many of you join me in having sincere sympathy, empathy, and affection for pigs, cows, and sheep, collectively and as particular individuals.

I can only imagine how you feel, knowing that the organization for which you work has opted to sponsor a festival of animal-eating in Denver. In case you missed the news, HSUS is the primary sponsor of the “Hoofin’ It” event that began today in Denver. On each of four days, a different hoofed animal will be featured on the menus of restaurants in a particular neighborhood: Buffalo today, sheep tomorrow, pigs the next day, and cows the next.

Perhaps, like me, you were mystified when HSUS decided that overwhelming public opposition to caging hens for eggs meant that HSUS ought to promote a particular kind of cage.  Perhaps, like me, you feel queasy every time you hear an HSUS representative brag about having a pig “farmer” on its Board. Perhaps, like me, you have struggled to reconcile such lapses in ethics and empathy with the good work that HSUS does in other areas.

I hope that, like me, you will find that “Hoofin’ It” represents a step too far and will find yourself unwilling and indeed unable to remain silent. I suspect that something has gone very wrong, organizationally, at HSUS and that this organizational derangement has made otherwise compassionate and reasonable people come to believe that sponsoring festivals of killing is a smart strategy that must be pursued, even if they must hold their noses to do it.

We need you to break the institutional consensus that has led to such harmful nonsense. Here’s what you can do:

1. Talk to the members of the HSUS management team responsible for the sponsorship of this event.

HSUS strongly encourages people to kill and eat pigs like Truffles this Tuesday

Tell them what you know about pigs. Ask them, directly and persistently, why they feel it is appropriate for people to kill and eat pigs. If they say that they do not agree with the killing of pigs, point out that HSUS –as the top sponsor of the “Hoofin’ It” event– will be directly responsible for all pig deaths due to that event. Ask them, directly and persistently, why they feel that people should actively promote the killing and eating of pigs. If they say that people should not actively promote the killing of pigs, ask them why they are doing so. Do not settle for obfuscation or evasion. Do not allow the actual pigs who will be killed to disappear into abstractions. That is exactly the problem we are trying to solve—the disappearance of real, feeling, animals into “meat.”

HSUS strongly encourages people to kill and eat lambs like Nigel this Monday

Tell them what you know about lambs, rams, and ewes. Ask them, directly and persistently, why they feel it is appropriate for people to kill and eat sheep. If they say that they do not agree with the killing of sheep, point out that HSUS –as the top sponsor of the “Hoofin’ It” event– will be directly responsible for all sheep deaths due to that event. Ask them, directly and persistently, why they feel that people should actively promote the killing and eating of sheep. If they say that people should not actively promote the killing of sheep, ask them why they are doing so. Do not settle for obfuscation or evasion. Do not allow the actual sheep who will be killed to disappear into abstractions. That is exactly the problem we are trying to solve—the disappearance of real, feeling, animals into “meat.”

HSUS strongly encourages people to kill and eat cows like Milkshake this Wednesday

Tell them what you know about calves and cows. Ask them, directly and persistently, why they feel it is appropriate for people to kill and eat cows. If they say that they do not agree with the killing of cows, point out that HSUS –as the top sponsor of the “Hoofin’ It” event– will be directly responsible for all cow deaths due to that event. Ask them, directly and persistently, why they feel that people should actively promote the killing and eating of cows. If they say that people should not actively promote the killing of cows, ask them why they are doing so. Do not settle for obfuscation or evasion. Do not allow the actual cows who will be killed to disappear into abstractions. That is exactly the problem we are trying to solve—the disappearance of real, feeling, animals into “meat.”

Do not lump the pigs, sheep, and cows together. Ask each question three times, for the pigs, for the sheep, and for the cows. If you know enough about buffalo for a fourth round, by all means go for it.

Do not do this by email. Face to face is best. Second best is by telephone. You must engage in conversation, not type at each other.

2. Talk with members of the HSUS management team who are responsible for the increasing trend of active HSUS support for so-called “humane” animal agriculture.

The most charitable interpretation of this disturbing trend is that the HSUS management team has come to believe that promoting so-called “humane” animal agriculture is a path to the ultimate abolition of animal agriculture. However, such a strategy is unlikely to lead to the desired end—to the contrary, by encouraging farmers to double down on animal agriculture, investing even more capital in new buildings and equipment, HSUS is helping to ensure that those farmers will remain in the business of exploiting and killing animals for profit.

At the same time, active HSUS sponsorship of projects such as the festival of animal-eating in Denver helps to expand the market for so-called “humane” animal products. The purveyors of such products need no such help. We are in the grip of a maddening fad wherein even people who have previously eschewed animal products gladly fork over premium prices for the pleasure of consuming animal products while feeling righteous about doing so.

HSUS management may believe that the struggle against factory farming must include active support for its alternative. That is true, and animal advocates have been remiss in not mounting stronger efforts to promote ethical, ecological, and economically equitable agriculture policies and practices. But the alternative to factory farming is not small-scale meat, dairy, and egg production. The alternative to factory farming is large-scale organic farming of fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, and grains for human consumption. Similarly, the alternative to small-scale meat, dairy, and egg production is small-scale organic cropping of fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, and grains.

HSUS management seems to be concerned not to seem anti-farmer. If that is part of the reason for promoting such obscenities as small-scale pig “farming,” it’s not working! HSUS continues to be considered an enemy by animal exploiters who claim to be speaking on behalf of farmers. Again, the remedy is active support for the real farmers who are feeding the world by growing fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, and grains for human consumption. They—and not pig “farmers”—are the ones who feed us. Those who do so sustainably and equitably deserve our vociferous support. HSUS could and should hold them up as the true alternative to factory farming and other forms of animal exploitation.

In each of the areas in which our sanctuary has been located—first on the Delmarva peninsula (where factory farming of chickens began and continues to reign) and now in Vermont (where dairying has and continues to wreck animal lives while ruining rivers)—we have known farmers engaged in animal agriculture who would like to get out of that bloody business but who lack the technical know-how and transitional funds to do so. HSUS could and should use both its lobbying might and its own funds to make it easy for farmers now engaged in animal exploitation to transition to plant-based farming.

While the Pork Board and other entities pretend to speak for U.S. farmers, they do not. U.S. farmers are a diverse group with diverse interests. The interests of dairymen and other ranchers are not the same as crop farmers. Indeed, throughout U.S. and world history, there have been significant disputes between animal herders and crop farmers. With its lobbyists at state and federal levels, HSUS could and should stand with crop farmers, so that their voices are not drowned out by those of animal wranglers.

What we, as a movement, need is for HSUS to divert the funds that are now being used to promote “humane” animal agriculture to the  urgent task of promoting the transition to a plant-based agricultural economy. There is work to be done at every level, from the local to the national, that would be a much better use of HSUS funds and energy than sponsoring festivals of animal killing or promoting particular forms of animal exploitation. In many ways, HSUS is the best-positioned organization to do pieces of that work. I personally find it painful to watch such rich resources being squandered on a strategy that cannot work in the long run and is injuring animals in the interim.

3. Talk with other HSUS staff who share your concerns

If you share my chagrin with the direction that the farmed animal division HSUS has been going, know this: You’re not alone. Yes, it’s true that it seems like everybody in the relevant HSUS departments has signed on to the program of promoting animal agriculture out of one side of the mouth while promoting veganism with the other, all the while smiling and using Dale Carnegie tricks to make people like you. But there are many people—including many more colleagues than you realize—who either suspect or know that something has gone very wrong. Dare to voice your own doubts, because in doing so you will be giving others permission to do so. Use “I statements” such as “I feel uncomfortable with…” and “I worry that…” so that those who are on the bandwagon will be less likely to shut down defensively.

Once you have identified a few people who share your concerns, or at least have doubts, get together off-site to talk about what you might do to have your voices heard by management. I know that this might sound daunting, but I also know that animal advocates never lack for courage. For what it’s worth, lots of us will be wishing you well and so grateful for whatever you can do.

In advance, I thank you.

Corrections & clarifications (August 18):

1. I have learned that the HSUS department responsible for the Hoofin’ It sponsorship is Rural Affairs, which falls under State Affairs. (Farm Animal Protection, which promotes Meatless Mondays and other programs to reduce animal consumption,  is a different department.)

2. I did feel sick when hearing an HSUS staff member brag about having a pig farmer on the Board but it turns out she was mistaken: He is an HSUS employee who has an ownership stake in a pig farm and is portrayed as either a pig farmer or not a pig farmer depending on the context.

3. I did not mean to hurt anyone’s feelings with the reference to Dale Carnegie and did not have anyone in particular in mind. I was referring to a style of communication that has become common not only at HSUS but within animal advocacy in general. My concerns about the patent insincerity of that style would have been better saved for another day. I regret the unkindness.